University of Kentucky UKnowledge Military History History 1986 Draftee Division: The 88th Infantry Division in World War II John Sloan Brown Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Brown, John Sloan, "Draftee Division: The 88th Infantry Division in World War II" (1986). Military History. 11. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_military_history/11 DRAFTEE DIVISION This page intentionally left blank DRAFTEE DIVISION The 88th Infantry Division in World War II JOHN SLOAN BROWN THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright© 1986 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0024 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, John Sloan, 1949- Draftee Division: the 88th Infantry Division in World War II Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. United States. Army. Infantry Division, 88th-History. 2. World War, 1939-1945-Regimental histories--United States. I. Title. D769.31 88th.B76 1986 940.54'12'73 86-18990 ISBN 978-0-8131-5152-6 To my generation's parents and grandparents, peaceable citizens who destroyed the most threatening militarists of their time This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations and Tables viii Preface ix Acknowledgments xi 1. Draftee Divisions: The Historical Roots 1 2. Personnel and Personnel Utilization: Bureaucratic Roulette 12 3. Training: Honing the Edge 33 4. Logistics: The Strongest Card 49 5. The Movement Overseas: Keeping the Edge 70 6. Minturno: Baptism by Fire 84 7. Diadem: The First Three Days 105 8. Minturno to Rome: The Pursuit 125 9. Rome to the Alps-and Beyond 140 Appendix 1. Cumulative Personnel-Induced Training Time Losses 164 Appendix 2. The Mythos of Wehrmacht Superiority: Colonel Dupuy Reconsidered 168 Abbreviations and File Numbers 176 Notes 179 Bibliographical Essay 213 Index 221 Illustrations/ Tables Figures 1. Division Overseas Deployments 13 2. A World War II Infantry Division 19 Maps 1. Diadem: II Corps Front 110 2. Diadem: The Roads to Rome 128 3. From Mintumo to the Alps 142 Tables 1. Table-of-organization weapons 55 2. Table-of-organization vehicles and special equipment 56 3. Table-of-organization equipment on hand 57 4. Automotive maintenance personnel 60 5. Changes in cadre automotive maintenance personnel 61 6. Changes in divisional logistical personnel 64 7. 88th's "old-timers" as of 1 July 1945 152 Photographs follow page 100 Preface Americans are an unmilitary people who have fought nine major wars and have been prepared for none. Peoples of a more martial tempera­ ment have defended their interests with large standing armies backed by even larger trained reserves. Americans create their armies after the crisis of war is already upon them. Of their military accomplishments, the most impressive has been the mobilization for World War II, an effort that included some fifty-five draftee divisions of all types. Draftee divisions were the products of mass conscription; selec­ tive-service agencies turned over thousands of young men to tiny, professional cadres who organized and trained them, then led them into battle. These "new divisions" represented yet another chapter in a debate, older than the republic itself, concerning the proper constitu­ tion of America's military establishment. They carried forward public ventilation of such topics as the respective roles of professional and temporary soldiers and the right of a democratic state to require invol­ untary military service of its citizens. The draftee divisions of World War II also added a new twist to old arguments. As their name implies, the rank and file of these divisions consisted almost exclusively of conscripts. Although such divisions had been assembled during World War I, World War II provided the first effective test of their actual utility. Few of the World War I draftee divisions saw combat as divisions, and these were involved only briefly. American draftees are the involuntary soldiery of an unmilitary people. If institutional means exist to make effective combat units out of such unlikely material in a reasonable time, our populace can rest somewhat easier in its general indifference to military affairs. America may not need to maintain large armies in times of peace in order to field enormous armies quickly and efficiently in times of war. Needless to say, the relative success of draftee divisions has tremendous implica­ tions for defense planning. Surprisingly, draftee divisions as a genre have received relatively little scholarly attention. Indeed, most of the working details of World X Preface War II mobilization have received little attention outside of discon­ nected and narrowly specialized studies. Serious historians of World War II have, for the most part, focused on major battles or on issues, decisions, developments, and personalities at the highest levels. 1 Scholars in the behavioral sciences have addressed the psychological and sociological aspects of combat without bridging the gap between human behavior and mobilization planning.2 Scholars in the more technical fields are every bit as specialized as their military counter­ parts-no holistic picture there. 3 Finally, the popular literature con­ cerning World War II, of which there is a great deal, concentrates on grand tactics or individual adventures. The net result of the foregoing is that the casual visitor to a library or bookstore can see a great deal of World War II from the cabinet, command post, or foxhole, but not much of it from the perspective of intermediate-level supervisors who must make personnel, training, and logistics come together on the field of battle. This study is hardly the complete answer to the vacancy suggested above, but it does follow a draftee division through the entire World War II experience, relying upon sources drawn largely from the inter­ mediate levels of administration and command. The division was the 88th Infantry, the first into combat, the longest lived, and perhaps the most respected of all World War II draftee divisions. 4 It was also the division in which my father served and which my grandfather com­ manded. Elsewhere I have cited sources and acknowledged my par­ ticular indebtedness to the many "Blue Devils" who have been so generous with their time and papers. Here it need only be said that this is their story, measured against standards appropriate to scholarly appraisal and heavily weighted with archival and external evidence. If one were given to the penny-chasing descriptive titles popular in the nineteenth century, this study might be subtitled "How We Created a Division Out of Raw Draftees and Led Them on to Victory Over the Most Highly Touted Army of Modern Times." There is much that is instructive in their experience. Acknowledgments I am indebted to benefactors so numerous I risk failing to recognize them all. For my shortcomings in that regard, I apologize in advance. The veterans of the Blue Devils Association have been incredibly generous with respect to time, energy, sources, and advice. My notes and bibliographical essay detail the 88th's individual contributors; here I need say that this book would have been impossible without them. I take great pride in having been made an honorary member of the Blue Devils, truly an assembly of kindly and generous men. Draftee Division began as a doctoral dissertation, written under the painstaking mentorship of Professor John E. Wilz of Indiana Universi­ ty, seconded by an able committee: Professors David Pletcher, George Juergens, and John Lovell. These men represent all that higher educa­ tion is supposed to be; under their patient, six-year stewardship I grew as much as a person as Draftee Division did as a manuscript. The staffs manning a number of archives-The Modern Military Records Branch of the National Archives; the U.S. Army Historical Research Center in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; the Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; the U.S. Army Armor Center Library at Fort Knox, Kentucky; the U.S. Army Infantry School Library at Fort Benning, Georgia; the Library of the Center for Military History in Washington, D.C.; and the U.S. Military Academy Library at West Point, New York-proved very helpful and proficient. In all of my experiences with these several archives, I never posed an inquiry that was not cheerfully responded to in a timely manner. We are fortunate to be in receipt of such dedicated public service. When one is writing a book, someone else inevitably takes up one's slack in other areas. This has been the lot of my wife, Mary Beth, who has sustained me through what she cheerfully refers to as an eight-year pregnancy. My children, Amy and Todd, have also cheer­ fully indulged me in Draftee Division. I do not believe they can remem­ ber the time when I was not yet working on this project. Others cheerful in adversity have been the numerous typists who, through xii Acknowledgments my total of nine military postings, have in turn laid hands on the manuscript. I might particularly note Susie McCloy of Bloomington, Indiana, who started me out; Debbie Biddle of West Point, New York, who typed the final draft of the dissertation; and Darla Rutledge of Leavenworth, Kansas, who carried Draftee Division through its final submission.